At least, not the ones my grandma knows.

My grandparents live in a retirement community in Delaware County, PA outside Philly. They both voted for Obama in the PA primaries (my 78-year-old grandmother even went door to door with me in Lower Merion the Saturday before), but a lot of their friends were for Hillary.

A lot of the women my grandma knows voted for Hillary because they wanted to see a woman president in their lifetime and did not think they would get another chance. So I was curious if some of them might be considering voting for McCain so they could at least see a woman become vice president.

I’m happy to report that according to my grandma, just about everyone she knows at the retirement community is a Democrat and voting for Obama. She didn’t know anyone who voted for Hillary in the primaries and now plans to vote for McCain. Wanting to see a woman president in their lifetimes may have been a factor for some in a primary where the two candidates were virtually identical on policy, but it’s not enough to make them vote for a ticket that does not share their principles.

Just a small sample, obviously, but hopefully indicative of how most other women who supported Hillary feel. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with voting for a candidate based on identity politics in a primary where the candidates are so similar on policy, but I hope that the desire to see a woman in office does not trump policy beliefs in the general election. For some it will, and that’s their right - we don’t get to decide what people should base their vote on. But hopefully the vast majority of Clinton supporters will vote based on policy, and what my grandmother told me today is a good sign. Another possibly good sign in terms of party unity is the fact that since Hillary’s speech at the convention, sales of the “Hillary Has My Heart, Obama Has My Vote” stuff in my store have picked up significantly.

On a related note, I would just like to brag about how awesome my grandma is. She’s going through radiation for cancer right now, but is still finding time and energy to help people in the assisted living section check their voter registration and get absentee ballots. As someone who was active in the civil rights movement as a young woman and was there for Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech 45 years ago, I think seeing an African American president in her lifetime would be just as exciting as seeing a woman president, although when I asked her about that, she said Obama is “wonderful no matter what color he is.”